Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-24
A sMUGGLER'S MU> EUM.


--INoah Perry in st. Nicholas for oe'ooei'
A SMUGGLER'S MU> EUM.
Devices which Have been sea :"
Heat the French Custom House,
At Scotland Yard, says the 81.
,James' Gazette, there is an almost un.
known museum full OF the significant
and sometimes CHASTITY objects when
have aided in the commission OF great
crimes. Probably the police OF most
great capitals have made similar col
iections. At the Custom House there
is believed to be room IN when are
kept q selection OF the most curious
aids to smuggling-hollow cheeses,
boxes with false bottoms, and the ike
which have been seized in the
possession of persons of undoubted
ingenuity. but of shaky hon
esty. In Paris there is a similar
but probably much more interesting
museum. Since the existence OF the
octroi duties, which are levied upon a
great variety of articles, induces a
good many people, who in other re-
CARDS are probably honest enough, TO
endeavor to defraud the revenue.
Here are kept some scores OF the most
clever devices of professional or anna
feur smugglers, which have from time
to time been seized at the barriers OF
the city or at the Custom Houses
throughout the country. Most OF them
are exceedingly ingenious, and some
are, indeed, of a nature to suggest that
in France even smugglers possess
esprit.
What appears at casual glance to
be block of Carrara marble IS really
a painted sheet iron box. 1t arrived
at the frontier in train from Italy
along with five similar ones. A Curl
ous depression upon one of these
blocks aroused the suspicion of a
dounaier, and upon examination the
trick was discovered. The boxes were
filed with ballast to make them
heavy, and at the bottom Of leach lay
ElOO0 pounds worth of Venetian lace
A pile of innocent-looking logs of fire
wood, such as are burned in Paris
were found to be hollow metal tubes
covered with the bark of trees
and filed with dutiable liquors
Probably only an officer who
possessed long familiarity with the
ways of smugglers would suspect 9
pile OF four dozen ordinary soup plates
Here is such a pile. There is nothing
in the least suspicious about the tor
and bottom dozens, but the twenty.
four plates in the middle form one
deep vessel with two dozen project
ing rims and when the adroit little ar
rangement was seized this vessel was
full of contraband brandy. A coffir
dispatched from Marseilles and bear
ing o railway label has a curious histo
ry. During the epidemic OF cholera al
Marseilles, two or three years ago
coffins were constantly passing the
barriers of that city, and the officers
respectfully uncovered as another cof
fined victim of the pestilence was
wheeled past on hand cart. The
fear of infection lulled their suspicious
perhaps, but when the cholera was
stamped out and the coffins did moi
diminish in number, it was resolved
te pluck out the heart of the mystery
The next coffin that arrived was
opened, and was found to be crammeC
with choice cigars.
Perhaps the most daring scheme fo
cheating the Partisan city chest o
which the museum contains evidence
was elaborated by a gentleman VIII,
was in the habit Of driving his elegan
victoria every evening past the barrie
at the entrance to the Bois de Bou
logne. He was always accompanies
by q smart groom, who slumbere'
peacefully upon the box while hi
master drove. Shortly afterward
sufficiently long to allow the gentle
man to make the regulation "tou
du lac"-the carriage would re
turn; and the officials became so &C
customed to its passage that the
ceased to examine it, and the oYne
drove back into Paris at a smart trot
courteously returning their salutation
with his whip. That smart trot wa
his undoing. One evening the viz
toria ran into heavy wagon an
master and groom were thrown out
Monsieur was picked up insensiblt
while from deep wound in the hea
of the groom slowly trickle
. stream of champagne. Th
interesting menial was compose
of zinc dexterously fashioned an
painted; and he has found restin
place in this smugglers' museum
The carriage was found to contain
zinc "well," which was likewise fu
of champagne. India rubber dres
improvers, arranged to conceal art
cles of contraband, have often bee
seized, while not the least curious e,
hibit is an india rubber baby capab
of containing eighteen pints of III
taxed liquor.